Thursday, September 9, 2010

Oh, hello, Bellevue. Nice to meet you! We've seen you sitting over there for awhile now, and we thought maybe it was about time we came over. We want in on all the Bellevue fun, and as a token of our friendship, we’re bringing cupcakes! Seattle’s Best Cupcakes, actually. See, we’ve been over here in Seattle for seven years now, baking our cupcakes fresh from scratch each and every day using mostly local, organic, and sustainable ingredients. We make ‘em with love, the way Grandma did, and we hand-frost each and every one with real American buttercream. It’s been a super sweet seven years, and we are proud to call Capitol Hill, Ballard, Madrona, and West Seattle home. And now, we’re just plain tickled pink to add Bellevue to our family of neighborhood cupcake goodness. And we think you might just get a little bit excited too…

Bygone days are here again...now with buttercream!

Our fifth cupcake café is gonna be an extravaganza of cupcake and coffee Americana goodness! The newest addition to the Cupcake Royale family will make its home in one of America's original IHOP buildings, complete with all the architectural charm and whimsy of those bygone days. Remember the A-frames and the wood paneling? As Jody likes to say, this is "what our café would have looked like had we opened in 1971." We're lucky enough to work once again with Roy McMakin on a quick and easy, guerilla-style makeover, to create a hip and homey neighborhood cupcake café that we think you’ll really love.

This café is going to be special for sure. A little bit different from our Seattle locations, this one will celebrate the history of the building and the quirkiness of the original design with a sweet and sassy combo of found decor, relics from the original IHOP, and custom pieces created especially for Cupcake Royale, like the 30-person, Doug Fir picnic table where you and all your friends can hang out on our patio. For those of you who frequented the original IHOPs of yore, you may remember those cool open kitchens. Well, we’re keeping that, too! The café will feature a wide-open kitchen where wide-eyed cupcakers of all ages can marvel at the magic of our behind-the-scenes operations.

The perfect partner for all this cupcake love? STUMPTOWN! We'll be the first café in Bellevue to be brewing those legendary Stumptown beans. That's right, people! We're bringing the very best, small-batch, freshly roasted beans in the whole wide world to Bellevue. And for those lazy days at home, we'll feature a fine little assortment of whole beans and home-brewing equipment.

Hold on! There’s more! The new café will open its doors at the end of this month, and we know it sure wouldn’t be very Royale of us to get our brand new friends-and-neighbors-to-be all excited about the impending cupcake funtimes…and then leave them waiting. So…the piece de résistance...THE MOBILE CUPCAKE PARTY-CART! Starting this very morning, we are debuting the first-ever mobile cupcake cart. It's like a hot dog cart, only way more awesome, and filled with cupcakes. We'll be parkin' our cart in the parking lot and serving up fresh-baked goodness to our new friends and neighbors until the doors to the café are officially open. We sure would love it if you stopped by and said hello. Anyone who gets a cupcake from the cart will also get a thank you card good for a free coffee when the doors to the café finally do open. Once the café is open for business, the Cupcake Party-Cart will head out into the world, available for birthdays, company parties, weddings, anniversaries, you name it!

Takin' sweet to the street.

So, to sum it all up, short and sweet:

WHAT: A new Cupcake Royale in Bellevue!

WHERE: 21 Bellevue Way NE, in that sweet old IHOP building!

WHEN: End of the month, but until then, get your cupcake on with us at our MOBILE CUPCAKE PARTY-CART in the parking lot!

I'm very happy that you're over here on the eastside. It just makes it easier for me to sneak over for a wonderful treat! My wonderful husband brought home a box full of salted caramel cupcake goodness for my birthday two weeks ago (as I had requested), and they were a huge hit with everyone. Here's my blog post about those wonderful little birthday cakes:

I was so excited to hear you were coming to Bellevue! I live just a couple of blocks from you and just returned from my first visit...and...well, I have to ask: are the décor and furnishings still works-in-progress? Because the stark white walls, concrete floor, hard furniture and wobbly Formica tables (read: spilled coffee) are definitely neither welcoming nor conducive to lingering and enjoying your delicious cupcakes and coffee. I hope you'll consider upgrading to some more comfortable furniture and colors. Bellevue could use a great coffeehouse for people to hang out. You might also try to do something about all the drivers using your parking lot as a high-speed shortcut to Bellevue Way (going the opposite direction as your customers). They probably got into the habit while the building was vacant, but it makes backing out of your parking spots a bit dicey.

Oh, and PLEASE consider adding frosting shots to your menu. Your frosting is amazing and would complement your Stumptown coffee outstandingly. Even if you don't, however, you should at least let your staff know what "frosting shots" means in case other customers ask. The two women who waited on me said other customers have asked about them, but nevertheless they seemed to think I was referring to some kind of coffee drink!